How to Justify a Big Price Increase

If you’re anything like the average female entrepreneur the answer is probably “never,” or “not for ages.” In fact, most women I know are totally undercharging in the first place, and that’s a recipe for burn-out and can even affect your positioning in the marketplace.

Increasing your prices is something you need to do regularly as a business owner, and honestly it doesn’t need to be scary – so let’s look at how you can justify it to yourself and to your clients without feeling like a bitch.

Be honest with me – when you think about increasing your prices, do you feel guilty about it?

That’s really common.

The truth is that pricing is one of the things that feels really emotional for women. It can be really tough when you have to do it yourself, which is why so many women try and crowdsource their pricing or want someone else to just tell them what to charge.

Think about it: if you’re in a job, the company sets the prices. But now YOU’RE the boss, so YOU have to look after it. Bummer, right? (but it doesn’t have to be.)

When I was first working as a junior in a consulting firm, I was charged out to clients at a certain rate per day. As I got more experienced and did more training, they increased my charge-out price. The company had no qualms or money blocks about increasing my rate.

But when I started working for myself, I charged lower than all the other coaches I knew, and felt like a terrible bitch every time I increased my prices – even just a little bit.

It’s really common for women to look around at what everyone else is charging and either average it out, or undercharge their competitors. And that’s a HUGE mistake (but don’t worry, I’ve got an excellent resource for you at the end of this article).

If you’re in the same boat and the thought of increasing your prices makes you feel sick, I’ve got three factors for you to consider to help you justify it.

Factor #1: Experience

Have you noticed that some hairdressing salons charge different rates depending if you see a junior or a senior stylist? If you’re after the absolute best result, you’ll go for the senior stylist, but it’s only fair that the apprentice doesn’t charge as much, right?

There’s a price point for every market and budget, and this is true of any kind of business too. Experience often means better results for your clients, and you can totally justify higher prices.

If you’ve got a lot of experience, you’re confident about the results you can get for your clients and you often know the exact thing that they should do for a fast result, you deserve to charge accordingly.

Don’t forget that your knowledge didn’t come for free for you either!

Lots of women who go into a new business, almost discount their experience in other areas as totally irrelevant, which is a mistake. All of your experience counts if it helps your clients get results.

Your clients are borrowing your years of training, so they don’t have to learn through trial and error themselves. They are paying you to short-cut their success.

Remember to factor that into your pricing – experience equals the right to charge more for what you offer.

Factor #2: Demand

Are you so much in demand that you’re booked up for weeks, if not months in advance? Time for a price increase.

Are you back to back to back with no time to break for a cup of tea or even a pee? I’ve been there! In fact, I used to get up at 5am for my first international client of the day and had client sessions all day with no buffer in between.

If you’re super popular, it’s a textbook sign that you’re ready to put up your prices. In fact, you can increase your prices, and the demand probably won’t drop off that much. TRUST ME ON THIS.

I’m not going to lie. Not everyone will stay a customer with you. Every time you increase your prices, you’ll lose some clients who are no longer in alignment with your rates – and that’s okay.

In fact, you could put up your prices by double, and chances are you might lose about 50% of your client base, but you’d still be making the same money, only working half as much.

Honestly, your business could easily withstand a 10-20% price increase without losing too many clients at all. Some might even be willing to pay extra for a VIP option where they can get access to you straight away, rather than waiting in line.

It might feel icky, though. You might be thinking, “But Denise, what about the people who really need what I do but can’t afford me anymore?”

This is honestly the biggest reason why women resist raising their prices or charging premium rates – it doesn’t feel fair, and most of us were taught at a young age to be inclusive and friendly.

Here’s the great news: when you’re earning awesome money for being awesome at what you do, it frees up your time and creativity.

Then you have mental space and physical time to create products that are more accessible for those people who can’t afford your higher-end services.

You could write a book, like I did to take your message out to potentially millions of people in a low cost way. Writing a book honestly takes a lot of (unpaid at first) effort, but if you’re completely booked out (and burnt out), you won’t have time.